In just a few weeks after Moses' final sermons to the Israelites, Joshua would lead the people across the Jordan into Canaan, where they would have the task of occurpying the land God had allotted to them. Concerning the Canaanites, Moses instructed Israel that "when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them " (Dt 7:2).
These words sound harsh to us today when we first encounter them. It is helpful to see them in the context of the rest of Scripture, paying attention to everything the Bible has to say about this subject.
Commentator Daniel Block points out several things to take into account:
- God is sovereign. He created us, and so he can do with us as he pleases. But he did not create us in order to discard us, and he does not give up on us easily (2 Peter 3:9). The physical death of a Canaanite did not determine that person's eternal destiny.
- The Canaanites were under judgment for some serious sins. The Exodus had been a warning to them, putting them on notice that they had 40 years to repent. As the example of Rahab and her family shows, they still had that option when confronted by the Israelites (Joshua 6:22-25).
- The primary thing that the Israelites were to destroy was the religion of the Canaanites, not the people themselves, who are pictured elsewhere as fleeing away (e.g., Ex 23:27-28).
- God does not show favoritism. Moses makes clear that if the Israelites live like Canaanites, they will suffer the fate of the Canaanites (Dt 8:18-20).
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